Improvement in dies for cutting and cupping sheet metal



C. F.'WILSON & S. H. MILLER.

Dies for Cutting and Cupping Sheet Metal.

N0. 138,72]; Patented May 6,1873.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES F. WILSON, OF NORTHBRIDGE, MASSAOHUSETTSQAND SAM. H. MILLER, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNORS TO THEMSELVES AND JESSE E. FOLK, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN DIES FOR CUTTING AND CUPPING SHEET METAL.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 138,721, dated May 6, 1873; application filed December 24, 1872.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, CHARLES F. WILsON, of Northbridge, in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, and SAM. H. MIL- LER, of the city of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented an Improvement in Dies for Cutting and Cupping or Drawing Metals and other materials, of which the following is a specification:

This invention relates to the manufacture of various cupped articles by cutting or stamping out a blank from metal, pasteboard, or other material in the sheet, and afterward giving it a cup-shape by indenting and drawing out said blank. The invention consists in certain arrangements of dies, clamping-ring or follower, and spring for operating the latter, whereby a stout or deeply-cupped article may bevery effectually produced without puckering, not only by the same dies used to cut out the blank, and at the same operation, but so that a single die action or motion, such as obtainable from a single reciprocating plunger of an ordinary power or other suitable press, will answer to complete the work.

Having thus specified the object or objects and nature of the invention, its description willbe proceeded with in reference to the accompanying drawing.

Figure 1 represents a longitudinal section of a pair of dies with a spring-borne clamping-ring or follower combined, all constructed in accordance with the invention, and shown as having cut'a blank from the sheet, and as commencing to cup the same. Fig. 2 is a similar view to Fig. 1, but showing the parts as about completing the cupping operation. Fig. 3 is a face view of the blank as cut or stamped from the sheet, and Fig. 4 a partly broken side view of the cupped article as produced by the dies.

A is a combined male cutting and female cupping die, and B a female cutting-die, and d a malecupping one, the two latter, which may be connected or combined so as to form one structure, having a clampin grin g or follower, 0, between them. These several dies are represented as having avertical position, with the die A uppermost, but the position of the dies AB (1 may be changed or reversed at pleasure, and either the die A or the combined dies B d be made to move, or both the die A and dies B d have motion given them. It will suffice here, however, to refer to the upper dieA as being the operating one and the dies B d as stationary; also, to refer to the sheet being operated-on as being metal. l i

The devices for holding and actuating the dies are not here shown,inasmuch as the same may be varied, but a screw or power press will answer every purpose.

D, in Fig. 1, is the metal sheet being operated on, the same being slid or placed over the lower dies B d while the upper die A is raised. The combined male cutting and female cupping die A is of hollow cylindrical construction, its outer lower margin forming its male cutting edge or portion, and its interior, which is fitted with a spring-borne plunger, 1), that bears down on the center portion of the blank, being the female cupping-part of the die. The combined female cutting-die B and male cupping-die d leave an annular space, the outer upper margin of which is the cutting-edge of the female cutting-die B, and in close contact with which the outer cuttingedge of the male cutting and cupping die A works as the latter passes down within the annular cavity of the lower die. The male cupping-die d receives the female cupping portion of the die A loosely over it to give room for the cupping of the blank. The clampingring or follower O is arranged to freely fit the annular space separating the (lies B and d, and is borne upward or outward toward the upper die A by a stout spring, h, and suitable connections.

At the commencement of the down-stroke of the upper die A the blank is first cut or stamped out from the sheet D, and subsequently, by a continuation of the down-stroke of the upper die, is drawn out andcupped, as required, without puckerin g of its margin by the action of the several dies relatively with each other and clamp or hold of the marginal portion of the blank during the act of cupping, between the ring 0 and lower end of the upper die, the marginal portion of the blank working die A being moved upward to admit of it.

By the combination and arrangements of parts, as shown and described, it will be observed that not only may deeply-cupped articles be produced without puckering by the same dies used to cut out the blank, and at the same operation, but that a single die action or motion, such as is obtainable from a single reciprocating plunger of an ordinary powerpress, is sufficient to complete the work, thus dispensing with a second or auxiliary plunger action that involves complicated mechanism. By the spring h, too, being arranged on the outside of or beyond the dies, as represented in-the drawing, for action, by plungers and rods or any suitable intermediate devices on the clamping-ring or follower O, we are enabled to use a much stouter spring than could possibly be used if arranged within the dies or space separating the dies B and d, and are consequently able to produce, by means of the dies, deeper-cupped articles and of stouter materialor, in other words, articles totally different as regards their usesthan if the spring were arranged Within the dies.

What is here claimed is'-- 1. The combination, substantially as herein shown and described, with the female cuttingdie B, male cupping-die d, and the female cupping-die A, constructed to also form a male cutter, of the spring-borne clamping-ring or follower O, wholly within the space separating the dies B and d, for operation together, as specified.

2. The arrangement of spring h-externally to the dies, and the device supported by said spring, and which supports the follower 0, within the die, substantially as described and shown, whether said device be posts or any equivalent thereof.

CHARLES F. WILSON. SAM. H. MILLER. Witnesses:

MIoHAEL RYAN, FRED. HAYNES. 

